Transferring car ownership between Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Well , this topic was never supposed to be a part of this blog. But for once Uncle Google (should google have been Ms Know-it-all aunt instead) let me down with the lack of information on the subject , I felt I should at least share what I know after going through the process recently.

After much deliberation I decided to let go of of my dearest car..

And as would most of us do it , I chose the Dubbizle way! Much to my delight I had already recieved couple of calls from potential buyers. And as luck would have it , I finally zeroed down someone from the neighboring emirate of Abu Dhabi. Hence the slight complication of transferring ownership ( or so I thought). Neither nor the buyer nor I were aware of what the process was. But the buyer did figure out his end of the process. And all I knew is I had to go to any RTA office in Dubai!

The steps we ( the buyer and I) followed are listed below:

I had a car loan open on the car. So I approached my bank to close the loan. I deposited all the balance amount with the bank on Saturday. On Monday , the bank had closed the loan and passed on information to RTA to release the car from their lien. RTA also sends a confirmation message on SMS once the lien is released. Without this you cannot go ahead with the sale. So if you have an open loan on your car this is must, else proceed to next step.

At the agreed time , I met the buyer at RTA belhasa office in Al Jadaf. Before we proceeded with the transfer the buyer transferred the funds to my bank account.

We took photocopies of our respective emirates IDs and the current car registration and were asked to remove the current Dubai registered car plates. With the plates and the photocopies we went back to the reception and were given the token number for processing the transfer.

At the counter, we had to submit the document photocopies , the car plates and the car registration card. We had to pay AED 20 post which Dubai RTA issued a transfer certificate. At this point, my part I.e. The buyer’s part of the deal is done. The seller will need this original transfer certificate and hence it advisable to save a photocopy of this too as a proof of ownership transfer.

After this procedure, the car has to be towed to Abu Dhabi and cannot be driven on the road till the new registeration is done. There were couple of towing trucks parked outside the RTA and the seller finalized the towing deal for AED 300 for transfer to the Registeration office at Muroor in Abu Dhabi

The buyer then went for his registration with his details and this transfer certificate. I am not completely aware of this part of the process.

And that’s it!! In less than 30-40 minutes the process was complete. It was quick and hassle free. Much easier than what I had thought it’d be ! I had carried my passport with me in case it was needed but with the Emirates ID all these transactions have become that much easier.

Also, as sellers , the following two items are not be missed

Salik cancellation : There is a Salik counter at the same RTA office where I processed the cancellation of my Salik account. Please note, any balance amounts in this account are not refundable or transferable. These remain in your account for 5 years starting the Salik cancellation date!

Insurance cancellation: I called my insurance provider who has asked me to send them the copy of the ownership transfer certificate to process this one. I will be visiting their office to finalize this process and will update once I have clarity on this process.